Art of Supply

The ports of Balboa and Cristóbal bookend the Panama canal. They don't control the canal, and they have been privately operated by CK Hutchison's Panama Ports Company for decades. 
Those old contracts are now in the middle of a legal fight, a sovereignty debate, and a live test of how far national power competitions can reach into commercial infrastructure.
Panama's Supreme Court recently ruled that the legal terms underlying CK Hutchison's port concession were unconstitutional. The concessions have been canceled and Panama has selected two different operators to take over responsibility for the ports while new owners are determined.
If that wasn't complicated enough, Hong Kong-based CK Hutchinson intended to sell the ports to U.S.-headquartered BlackRock, a move that China was not too happy about. 
The ports are now in the middle of a high stakes proxy war, with China and CK Hutchison on one side, and BlackRock and the Trump Administration on the other.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers the short and long term implications of uncertain Panama Canal port ownership:
Panama's disputed Supreme Court ruling 

Why the original $23 billion BlackRock-MSC transaction now looks much more complicated than a straightforward ownership transfer.

How BlackRock, Maersk, MSC, and other bidders are repositioning around the two terminals.

What to watch for when a local concession dispute becomes a multi-jurisdiction legal and geopolitical risk event

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Who owns the Panama Canal?
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At its peak, iRobot generated nearly $1.6 Billion in annual revenue, and by 2022 Amazon believed the company was worth $1.7 Billion. By just a few years later, the company that pioneered consumer robotics would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The company that ultimately took ownership of iRobot wasn't Amazon or another Silicon Valley tech firm or even a U.S. competitor. It was the company's own overseas contract manufacturer.
How does a company go from being a pioneering leader in robotics to being owned by the very supplier that once built its products?
The answer is a story about regulation, supply chains, debt, competition, and unintended consequences.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:
The rise of iRobot and the creation of the Roomba line of vacuums
Amazon's $1.7 Billion acquisition attempt — and why global regulators blocked it
How financial pressure, debt, and supply chain decisions reshaped the company, right into the ground
And how iRobot ultimately ended up owned by its largest manufacturing partner
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"There are a lot of different ways to hold all of the conspirators who are involved in the effort to intentionally smuggle counterfeit goods into the U.S. and into U.S. systems accountable." 
Most modern supply chains are complex, sprawling beasts. Their global scale is highly strategic, but it also creates opportunities for criminal organizations to threaten companies, the Federal government, warfighters, and first responders. 
The Government Supply Chain Investigations Unit (GSCIU) was created as the result of a 2022 Congressional request for Homeland Security Investigations to address concerns about the risk of counterfeit components finding their way into U.S. military supply chains. Since then, they have operated as a task force, analyzing interagency information to identify and combat threats to relevant supply chains.
Brian Andersen is a supervisory special agent at Homeland Security Investigations Global Trade Division, part of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, and the Government Supply Chain Investigations Unit, which he had the opportunity to help build from the ground up.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Brian and Kelly Barner discuss:
The priorities of the Government Supply Chain Investigations Unit
How they partner with other agencies and private businesses to root out risk within the supply chain and hold criminals accountable
What procurement and supply chain professionals should be on the lookout for as warning signs that they have acquired or encountered counterfeit products 
Links:
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National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center
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How could a company worth about $3 Million wipe out more than $17 Billion in transportation market value in a single day?
On February 12th, a press release from Algorhythm Holdings, a company that started its life as a karaoke machine manufacturer, announced that its AI-enabled freight platform SemiCab could reduce empty truck miles by more than 70 percent.
By midday, major logistics firms were down as much as 20 percent. C.H. Robinson, Landstar, J.B. Hunt, railroads, and airlines all felt the shockwave.
If SemiCab's technology works as described, it could reduce waste, lower emissions, and save shippers billions. At the same time, it could compress margins, erode pricing power, and expose just how much excess capacity the freight market really has.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:
The sequence of events: how a small-cap AI announcement triggered a historic sell-off
The claims behind SemiCab, and how Algorhythm evolved from karaoke to freight tech
Why reducing empty or "deadhead" miles (which sounds like unqualified good news) could actually hurt incumbent logistics firms
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"Shipping in 2026 is going to get darker." - Michelle Wiese Bockmann, Senior Maritime Intelligence Analyst, Windward 
Right now, somewhere between 900 and 2,000 aging oil tankers are operating in the shadows.
They are carrying sanctioned crude from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. This so-called "shadow fleet" often sails under false flags, spoofs its locations, turns off monitoring systems, transfers their cargo at sea, and sometimes operates without insurance.
These dangerous vessels are increasingly being boarded, seized, escorted into port, and tied up in court, but enforcement at sea is messy, expensive, and legally complex. 
One company… GMS… thinks they have an answer. They believe they can scrap about 100 of these seized, sanctioned ships annually - if (and it is a big IF) they are given permission by the U.S. Treasury to acquire them.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner explores three interconnected questions:
What is actually being done to get shadow fleet tankers off the water?
What happens to the ships — and the oil, and the crew — after they are seized?
And what are the second- and third-order effects for global shipping markets, risk, and supply chains?
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